THE EARRING EXHIBITION
September 15 to November 15, 2017
Earrings by Becca Taylor, Image by Eric Kozakiewicz
My first- first Friday opening after I moved to Winnipeg in August 2011 was a big night out with exhibitions at a variety of Winnipeg galleries. My cousin, artist, KC Adams, invited me to come and meet the community that I would soon be working with. When we arrived at the first event at Urban Shaman Contemporary Aboriginal Art Gallery, I fawned over the amazing outfits, shoes and accessories everyone was sporting. We were at the ‘art opening,’ a night for socializing, networking and seeing new works and ideas emerge. It was a night to dress and wear your most proud and striking outfits and earrings that fellow Indigenous people could appreciate and admire, the bigger, the sparklier, the better and earrings are an incredible vehicle for demonstrating individual style.
Indigenous garments are an embodied experience; I grew up watching women work on regalia and accessories all winter long to showcase new designs, with pride, on the pow-wow trails. On and off the pow-wow trail, earrings of beads, leather, feathers and cabuchons are creative expressions that are shared between communities. They communicate our identities to others as well as our implementation of stylistic preference. They create connections between communities and individuals, as we share our patterns and work with one another and disseminate artists’ work across Turtle Island.
Traditionally our work was made for the body through ceremonial garment making. Now as our work takes shape in public and architectural spaces, the body stays evident within the practice of actions, performance and installations - garments, or fashions now plays an integral part. These works of art made for the body, narrates histories and innovations of Indigenous people; creating a surface of insights on cultural complexity and diversity, that can be worn for performance, special occasions or in daily life.
The Earring Exhibition is an online exhibition that compliments the curated fashion show that showcases the work of Jeneen Frei Njootli, Sage Paul and Meghann O’Brien presented at Western Canada Fashion week on September 16, 2017. The one night event highlights three artists crossing and erasing the boundaries between contemporary art and fashion; embodying the deep-rooted connection. They are using fashion and performance to narrate stories of Indigenous peoples everyday lives, in an industry showcase where cultural appropriation has a history of misinforming audiences and misrepresenting and alienating Indigenous people.
The Earring Exhibition features works from Inuk 360, Joi T. Arcand, Angel Aubichon, Tashina Lee Emery, Tania Larsson, Amy Malbeuf and Melanie Parsons. Each of these artists brings their own contemporary aesthetic to the materials passed down to them, narrating their individual stories. Preserving materials and knowledge within the designs, whether it is through the use of language, like Joi T. Arcand’s acrylic use of Cree words to adorn the body or materials frozen in time like Tashina Lee Emery’s resin cased quillwork. Identifying place and culture like Amy Malbeuf’s tufted designs or Melanie Parson’s dark and light balanced compositions. Within each design there is a place for education and to foster and promote cultural revitalization through art, design and fashion, like the works and initiatives of Angel Aubichon, Inuk 360 and Tania Larsson.
Highlighting their cultural identity, the featured artists of The Earring Exhibition are creating works that are not confined to stagnant ideas or appropriation but are diverse, transformable, and changing the conceptions of Indigenous identity in fashion; taking traditional techniques, knowledge and stories presenting them with contemporary aesthetics of modern Indigenous life. The earring designers highlighted on this online exhibition are artists, curators, designer and educators from different nations throughout Turtle Island. We as the viewer, artists and curators have the privilege to become collectors and wear works from different artists that embody different actions and narrations, exhibiting them in our daily lives.
Text by Becca Taylor
Ociciwan Contemporary Art Collective encourages you to visit the designers webpages and social media for more information on how to purchase their designs.
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This project was produced with the support of the Edmonton Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
